Drilling Report Yanerbie-1 Cooper Basin, South Australia

HARTFORD, Conn., July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Magellan Petroleum Corporation said that its 55-percent-held subsidiary, Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited, made the following release to the Australian Stock Exchange on Thursday, July 14, 2005:

                           Announcement to ASX

                          Weekly Drilling Report
                 Yanerbie-1 Cooper Basin, South Australia

Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited advises that at 06:00 hours today the Yanerbie-1 exploration well in exploration permit PEL 110 had reached a total depth of 2,517 metres and was running abandonment plugs, having failed to encounter any hydrocarbons pools.

  Yanerbie-1 Details:

   Petroleum Title:       PEL 110.
   Location:              Cooper Basin, South Australia.
   Coordinates:           Latitude: 26 degrees 54' 59.80" South.
                          Longitude: 140 degrees 37' 49.10" East (GDA 94).
   Drilling Rig:          Century Rig 3.
   Total Depth:           2,517 metres RT.
   Objective:             The Jurassic Hutton Sandstone and Triassic
                          Tinchoo Formation are primary targets with the
                          Poolowanna Formation deemed a secondary objective.
   Current Operations:    The well was drilled to a total depth of 2,517
                          metres and is currently running abandonment plugs,
                          having acquired wireline logs.  Analysis of the
                          logs showed no evidence of hydrocarbon pools in
                          the well. It is anticipated that the drilling rig
                          will be released later today.
   Progress for Week:     369 metres.

  Participants in the Yanerbie-1 well are:

   Magellan Petroleum Australia Limited        31.25%
   Beach Petroleum Ltd                         31.25% (Operator)
   Cooper Energy Limit                          25.0%
   Enterprise Energy NL                         12.5%